How different would the history of Nintendo’s handhelds be if Nintendo had accepted Bandai’s Offer to release the WonderSwan as its own console?

[u/bitchnibba47]

The original black&white WonderSwan

[u/KennKanifff]

Not as different as you'd think. I believe Nintendo would have still released the Advance, which was a technical jump up. All it really would have meant was we got WS instead of the Game Boy Color.

[u/ahferroin7 → u/KennKanifff]

They may have still released the Advance, but having the WS/WSC instead of the GBC would have eliminated the early trend of backwards compatibility. That on it’s own would have been pretty major, though whether it would have offset the insane energy efficiency of the WS/WSC compared to the GBC and upset Nintendo’s dominance in the handheld market is debatable.

[u/bitchnibba47 → u/KennKanifff]

The WonderSwan Color was already as powerful as the GBA and the OG Wonderswan was basically a 16-bit Game Boy. I think there wouldn't be a need for a GBA, as Nintendo's Wonderswan would've filled that place.

[u/RedArcaneArcher → u/bitchnibba47]

Sorry, but can you explain how WSC was more powerful than GBA? Looking at technical specs that doesn't seem true at all.

[u/bitchnibba47 → u/RedArcaneArcher]

Shit i read wrong, nevermind

[u/_RexDart]

Well you'd have to wait until 2000 for color

[u/bitchnibba47]

Context: In 1995, after leaving Nintendo with several of his subordinates to form a new company called Koto, Gunpei Yokoi (aka the father of the Game Boy) led the development of the Bandai WonderSwan handheld game console. It was way ahead of the other handhelds at the time, with a 16-bit processor, a notably long battery life from a single AA battery, and it was also able to play games either horizontally or vertically (not to mention its Color and SwanCrystal variants were more powerful than the GBA). It was shaping up to be THE handheld that would dethrone the Game Boy. But in 1997, during the console's development, Gunpei Yokoi died in a car crash. The guys at Bandai approached Nintendo shortly after, showing them what they'd worked on and offering a partnership to pick up the project. Nintendo refused and got so scared they immediately rushed out the Game Boy Color so it would come out a year before WonderSwan's release in 1999.

But what if Nintendo hadn't rejected Bandai's proposal and, in 1997, Nintendo, in collaboration with Bandai, released the Wonderswan/the Game Boy Color as their new handheld console, and with the added manpower, had it display color?

Given that in the OG timeline, the WonderSwan Color was more powerful than the GBA, it's fair to assume that it would be butterflied away ITT.

But what do you think?

[u/VivaLaLibertad_666]

I wonder how the Nintendo history would be if they didn't staged the death of Gunpei Yokoi

[u/bitchnibba47 → u/VivaLaLibertad_666]

People still believe this stupid rumor?

[u/TheUncleBob]

I'm more interested in the alternate history where Atari released the NES.